State v. Barnes

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction for simple assault entered following a jury trial in the Superior Court. The defendants claim that the trial justice abused his discretion in denying the defendants’ motion for a continuance and that he erred in denying their motion for a new trial.

The defendants, Elbert Barnes and Dennis R. Gomes, were inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI). On November 19, 1976, there was a disturbance at the ACI during which a group of inmates dragged a fellow inmate, one Jackie Hogue, from his cell and threw him over a railing to the floor some…